Is it harder than Strange Journey, Etrian Odyssey, or Dark Spire? That's a tall order.

Depends how you term 'harder'. SJ, EO and Dark Spire are hard because of specific encounters that either require specific tactics (or party builds) or grinding to higher levels. They're also hard because in the case of SJ and EO you have a 'survival' element where half the tension involves making it back to the save point.

With Grimrock you can save anywhere / anytime so the difficulty comes from the situational encounters and the frantic nature of battle. It's tile-based real-time so you'll open a gate then find yourself in a room facing a group of enemies that are weak on their own but become formiddable if they surround you or attack from range while you're already engaged in combat. It's also 50% a puzzle game with each floor giving you multiple logic challenges to overcome before you can progress so difficulty also comes from working these out.

For oldschool CRPG'ers like myself it's a blast, and possibily easier because we know how to use the mechanics (enemy movement, hit and move, puzzle types etc.) so I'm not finding it hard - more like a fair challenge.

Also, in terms of no-one knowing about it - it's been one of the top sellers on Steam since release so it might be unknown amongst the console fraternity but it's actually pretty high profile amongst PC gamers with an interest in RPG's or dungeon crawlers.

If anyone remembers Dungeon Master or Eye of the Beholder then it's far more like those games than Wizardry or Might & Magic. The team responsible (4 man indie developers) have made a decent amount of money already and they're also intent on making it easy for modding community to create new content using the engine so it could well develop into something very special in the next few months.

With this, and the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter reaching over $3m in funding (of a $900,000 target) it's looking very much like CRPG's are rising from the flames in a way that we should have seen coming with the success of Dragon Age: Origins (and subsequent failure to appreciate when designing DA2). Even D W Bradley of Wizardry fame appears to be getting back in the saddle after being lost in the wilderness of Facebook social rubbish for the last 7 years.

I suppose you could compare it to Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land but with more puzzles and the enemies not going turn-based the minute you touch them. I'm a massive advocate of turn-based combat but the tile-based real time combat in Grimrock really works well in the confines of the cramped corridors and rooms in this game.

Some pointers for anyone starting out:- Dexterity does not affect ranged attacks (just melee accuracy and dodge)- Vitality and Willpower scale better than Strenght and Dexterity- Everyone has to take part in combat (throw 1 rock, or cast 1 spell etc) to gain exp

Hmmmm... I considered unarmed but then wussed out and went Sword / Axe for my front pair. The Mrs has given me a couple of hours off the usual dadding/husband responsibilities tonight so I'll be Grimrocking my way to some spider based death tonight.

I picked it up and have played it for about an hour. Dig the hell out of it. Reminds of of all those old mysterious RPGs I'd play on my dad's PC as a wee lad. Looking forward to sinking some more time into it.